When tens of thousands of students rallied in August for the reunification of Korea, women stood side by side with men in resisting police repression. But in addition to the jailings that these women activists have endured along with their fellow activists, they have been subjected to special repression: sexual harassment.
On Nov. 21, seven women students filed suit against South Korea's National Police Agency charging verbal and physical sexual harassment. The women say that during the arrests following the August raid on Yonsei University, they were grabbed and told by police that they were to be "activist sex slaves."
About 1,000 female students were arrested among the nearly 6,000 students rounded up after the Yonsei demonstrations. The Korea Women's Associations United say that they had received over 100 calls describing sexual harassment.
The charges have brought demands in the National Assembly for an investigation. The ruling New Korea Party has blocked these demands.